On Surviving The Shark Tank

It's a Sunday afternoon, and my husband and I took an hour off to watch one of our favorite shows, called The Shark Tank.

We absolutely love this show and I highly recommend that if you are at all interested in starting a business, watch this show religiously. You will get a million dollar education and a slew of marketing ideas from it.

In fact, even our teenagers sat enthralled this afternoon and the whole family got involved with debating the pros and cons of each deal and business idea discussed today. Trust me, it takes a LOT to capture the interest of the kids when it comes to discussing entrepreneurial issues, so this is truly a great show!

But aside from the regular benefits of watching this show, today's episode was particularly touching for me, as it featured an inspiring lady named Leslie Haywood.

(I felt like I was watching myself today)

Leslie appeared on Shark Tank to approach the panel of venture capitalists for $50,000 to help her grow her home based business. She had invented a product that she created all by herself, from her own home office, and she had already proven the concept by selling it in retail stores all over the US. That, in itself, was inspirational!

But here's the part that got me all choked up and prompted me to tell you about her today…

She is a breast cancer survivor just like me.

In fact, she got hit with my arch nemesis in the most crucial time in her business start up phase, and this gutsy woman was still able to make her business fly.

During her appearance on Shark Tank, when asked how much money she's made so far with her product, she said she'd sold roughly $60,000 worth, “but I had a little run-in with breast cancer at the age of 34, and that slowed me up just a little bit.”

Amazing! She managed to make it sound like “no big deal”.

My favorite line from her website is this one: “So, who am I and what makes me qualified to undertake and succeed at such a monumental task? Well, the short answer is: nobody told me that I couldn't! (And even if they did, I wouldn't listen anyway.)”

Leslie has perfectly captured, in a few powerful words, the number one “secret” to success in anything you do…

Don't ever let anyone tell you that you cannot accomplish your goals, especially if that person is YOU.

Thank you, Leslie, for being an inspiration to all of us and following your heart, your dream, and your passion, no matter how many challenges get thrown your way.